Dr Liz Allen is a demographer at ANU and a regular commentator on population issues for the ABC. The ABC recently announced Dr Allen as one of their 'top 5 humanities researchers', which apparently means she gets to work at the ABC for a few weeks and presumably gets more gigs as an expert commentator. Dr Allen is a supporter of the trend toward a 'Big Australia', which implies continued rapid growth from our current population of 25 million … [Read more...]
The ABC, Population Growth and A Big Australia: Official Complaint
During the week commencing 12 March 2018 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation aired a number of programs on a Big Australia -- the phrase used to encapsulate debates about the desirability of Australia's rapid immigration-fuelled population growth. The specific programs included episodes of 4 Corners and QandA. Subsequently I submitted an official editorial complaint as per the ABC's complaint-handling process. In the complaint I took care to … [Read more...]
Dr Jonathon Sobels Nails It On Population and Immigration
For a concise, informed statement of the challenge population growth poses for Australia, this interview with Dr Jonathon Sobels is highly recommended. Dr Sobels is a senior research fellow at the University of South Australia and was the lead author of a major study, "Long-term physical implications of net overseas migration: Australia in 2050", commissioned by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship back in 2010 into the impacts of … [Read more...]
Upcoming ABC shows on population and a Big Australia
The question of Australia's population size and a 'Big Australia' will be the subject of ABC Television Four Corners and Q&A programs on Monday 12 March 2018. For details see this post at the Q&A Facebook page. Due to a virtual consensus among the major political parties (including the Greens) that a Big Australia is a Good Thing which must not be questioned, it is all that much harder to get any balance on this topic in the mainstream … [Read more...]
Managing Australia’s Migrant Intake – Time for More Democracy
It is a peculiarity of Australian policy-making that a decision with major import for our society, economy and environment -- namely the size of our annual intake of permanent migrants -- is made in virtual secrecy and announced in an obscure line of the annual budget papers and an equally obscure line of a Departmental press release. The decision is important because our prescribed annual migrant intake (last year it was set at 190,000) makes a … [Read more...]